Manhunting in Mississippi Read Online Free PDF Page A

her tongue. Pain exploded in her sinuses while stars floated behind her eyes. And she had the vaguest thought that the cut in her mouth would affect her tasting abilities for the day. Damn pushy salesmen! They bombarded the plant daily, trying to coax Edmund Blythe into using their branded ingredients in the desserts produced on the line.
    She pressed her hands against her forehead, blinking back involuntary tears. A low thumping noise invaded her senses and she realized someone was knocking on her window. Loath to move her pounding head, Piper glanced up slowly to see a man standing outside beneath an umbrel a, peering in at her. He wiped away the rain on the glass, then yel ed, “Are you al right?”
    Her first instinct was to fling open the door and send the stranger sprawling, but her head hurt so much, she could only nod. He knocked again and motioned for her to lower the window. She cranked down the glass gingerly, giving him the same two inches she’d al owed Lenny this morning.
    However, if she hadn’t been so angry, she would have appreciated the fact that the stranger was a measurable improvement over Lenny. His dark hair was cleanly shorn and
    he was wearing a shirt—a dress shirt, no less—and a tie, which was reason enough for pause in these parts. His clear eyes were the color of the rain dripping from his umbrel a and topped with dark eyebrows, which were drawn into a vee. “Are you al right?” he demanded again.
    Furious at her physical response to the nitwit, she swal owed a mouthful of blood and narrowed her eyes at him. “You,” she said thickly, “are a menace.”
    The man’s eyebrows shot up and he pul ed back a few inches. “Me?” he sputtered. “What about you? Don’t you know you’re supposed to have your lights on when it’s raining?”
    Piper licked her lips, testing her tongue. “I didn’t expect,” she said, her voice escalating with each word, “anyone to be driving like a maniac in the parking lot! ” She winced at the pain and exhaled.
    “It’s a good thing you had your seat belt on,” he snapped.
    “It’s a good thing I’m not carrying a gun,” Piper returned.
    He scowled, gesturing. “Are you al right or aren’t you?”
    “I’l live,” she muttered, fingering the goose egg fast forming on her forehead.
    “Look, give me a minute to move my car,” he said. “You can have the parking space.”
    “Don’t do me any favors,” she said dryly.
    “I didn’t see you,” he said tersely, “or I would have gladly let you have the spot.” He strode toward his car, shielded by the umbrel a. His movements were jerky as he unlocked the door and lowered himself inside. Within a few seconds, he had backed out of the spot and disappeared around the corner.
    Piper eased into the space, her heart stil racing from the encounter. After she turned off the engine, she leaned forward and rol ed her eyes up at the sky, hoping for a few minutes’ reprieve to make the dash into the building. When none seemed forthcoming, she fished a plastic grocery bag out of the glove box. After tying the handles under her chin, she took a deep breath, then shot out of the door into the unrelenting cloudburst.
    She didn’t make it far. Her pumps didn’t have the same grip as her trusty clogs. One second she was jumping puddles, the next she was flat on her back on the pavement,
    completely winded and half-submerged, her head held out of the water, she suspected, by the knot rising swiftly on her crown. She squeezed her eyes shut against the pain. Merciful y the rain suddenly stopped.
    “You’re accident prone,” a male voice said above her.
    Piper opened her eyes slowly to see the salesman kneeling over her, his umbrel a providing the imagined lapse in the downpour. She considered the depth of the puddle—
    surely drowning would be less painful than dying of humiliation.
    “Are you al right?” He grasped her arm and pul ed her to her soggy feet, but she felt off balance and leaned